At least eight people were killed in an Israeli attack on a school housing displaced Palestinians in northern Gaza, as Israel sent several senior officials for negotiations on a possible ceasefire.
An Israeli attack hit the Zainab al-Wazir school in the Jabalia al-Balad region of northern Gaza on Saturday, killing eight civilians, including two women and two children, according to Palestinian civil emergency services.
“The Israelis targeted us without any prior warning,” one mother told Al Jazeera, as she sifted through the debris. “They attacked us with a missile. I don’t know where our children are. I don’t know anything about them, whether they are injured or killed.
Al Jazeera’s Moath al-Kahlout described the scenes at al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City, where dozens of injured people were taken, as “bloody” and “disastrous”, highlighting the shortage of medical supplies in part of Israel’s current siege of northern Gaza, which has been in place for more than 80 days.
Later on Saturday, the official Palestinian news agency Wafa reported strikes on various locations in Gaza, including an attack on a house in the Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City that killed four Palestinians and injured several others. others.
Israeli warplanes also bombed a tent housing displaced families in Deir el-Balah, located in the center of the enclave, killing three people, Wafa reported.
Other strikes reportedly killed one person near the Bureij refugee camp, also in central Gaza, and another in the southern town of Khan Younis.
The intensified attacks come as Egypt, Qatar and the United States step up efforts to reach a deal to end fighting in Gaza and release remaining Israeli prisoners in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
“Difficult friction points”
On Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President-elect Donald Trump’s new special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, who visited Qatar earlier in the week.
Witkoff reassured Egyptian and Qatari mediators that the United States would continue to work toward a fair deal to end the war soon, Egyptian security sources were quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.
After the meeting, Netanyahu sent a high-level delegation, including the head of Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad, to Qatar to “advance” the talks, according to a statement from Netanyahu’s office.
“There are a lot of moving parts here,” said Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut, reporting from Amman, the Jordanian capital.
“Donald Trump has said that he would be quite aggressive in his attempt to obtain a ceasefire if it is not achieved before he takes office… But we must not forget that there are difficult sticking points on either side,” she said.
“The Israelis say they will not end the war, and Hamas says they want a comprehensive ceasefire that would end the war and the withdrawal of Israeli troops.
“And there is also the Israeli public, who are constantly demonstrating against Benjamin Netanyahu, against the Israeli government, saying that they are neither able nor willing to make a deal fifteen months after the start of this war,” he said. -she declared.
Families of Israeli prisoners welcomed Netanyahu’s decision to send the officials, with the headquarters of the Hostages and Missing Families Forum describing it as a “historic opportunity.”
“Impossible to stay alive”
As mediators prepare for new ceasefire negotiations, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said Palestinians under attack in Gaza also face severe food shortages as Israel continues to ignore UN demands regarding the lifting of its restrictions on supplies entering the band.
“Every day we see children with empty pots looking for community kitchens and talking with families saying they are barely able to feed their children one meal a day,” Khoudary said, reporting from Deir el-Balah .
“It is not only the continued airstrikes, but also malnutrition that is killing Palestinians in the Gaza Strip,” she said.
Vibe Klarup, director of Amnesty Denmark, said Israel was committing “genocide.”
“When we say that Israel is committing genocide, it is not an opinion, it is a conclusion based on thorough legal analysis,” she said at the Palestinian European Network conference in Copenhagen.
“It is increasingly impossible to stay alive in the Gaza Strip… Our role as a people is to end the genocide,” she added.
At least 46,537 people have been killed in the Israeli war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, according to Palestinian health authorities.
